CHAPTER XXXVII.

Break, break thy wand, magician!-for thy spells
Are idle now as whisperings of the wind!

RUMOUR is fabled with a hundred tongues. It was not therefore by the extirpation of three that her never-failing sources of scandal could be dried up. Though fearful justice had been done on the disturbers of the public mind, the surmise to which they had given birth was not to be buried in their unhappy grave. Like an ill-laid ghost, it rose at midnight to walk again, though with more stealthy step and whispering accent. The idea once raised, fear and suspicion, the constant concomitants of crime, prevented its being finally banished.

By the time of sunset, the blockading squadron had again worked its way up to windward, and invested the island once more; so that when daylight broke, and discovered them increased in number, and the Flying Dutchman still absent, the suspicions of the mutineers began to grow deeper, and continued to do so throughout the day; for as their ringleader had mentioned his intention of trying the effect of supernatural terrors on his enemies soon after midnight, or in the first blush of morning, the nonfulfilment of this design was attributed rather to deliberate treachery than the result of any unforeseen accident.

But though this belief had become very general, it was not, as I have before hinted, expressed, but rather understood amongst them; and with the exception of Ramsay, few indeed were free from some taint of the impression.

Our hero, on the contrary, believed that, if it had been to certain death, the fearless ringleader would have rendered himself in strict redemption of his word. Which was the most correct opinion of that singular man, the issue will decide.

The state of uncertainty, doubt, and alarm, thus produced in the bosoms of the pirates, varied with strong but tantalising hope among their prisoners rendered, the

second night after Mynheer's departure, little favourable to repose on either side.

Poor Ramsay had his share in all these emotions. Gratitude made him feel deeply for the misguided men; and that he should wish to return to his country was of course most natural; while at this too he shuddered, on remembering the charge which had ended in his arrest. On that night, also, Annette, who, with the greatest joy, had returned to the service of her mistress, brought him the pleasing intelligence that he was the father of two boys, only one of which, however, survived.

The night had waned past midnight, and Ramsay was hailing with delight the cheerful countenance of his old friend the surgeon, who, with a few professional jokes, was assuring him of no evil being likely to befal the mother, when suddenly the mirth of both was hushed by the roar of artillery, and the quick rattling peals of musketry.

In an instant Ramsay darted to the door; but the surgeon intervening said, in his quaint authoritative man

ner,

"Sit down, man: it's no business of yours whose throats are slitting; you know that wherever shots are flying, they always make it their business to take off intermeddlers."

"But, my dear fellow, something has happened which concerns the whole of us, depend on it; do let me go and see."

"And get knocked on the head for your pains. No, no, if it concerns you, you'll hear of it sooner or later, so pass you out no more till morning dawns. Your wife will be sending for you presently when she hears this firing, and then of course every one will haste to tell her you're in the thick of it; and when my patient's lost, though you've done the mischief, I shall get all the blame."

This argument was conclusive; and though tormented by a thousand vague and agitating surmises, he followed the friendly advice of the surgeon, and remained within.

The true state of affairs was this:-On the second night after the departure of the Flying Dutchman, one of the captured officers had succeeded, by promises of pardon and reward, in persuading a party to betray the rest of their comrades. They assisted him to escape through the passage of the reefs to sea to join the blockaders and promised their aid on his return with a force in the king's

name.

Faithful to their double guilt, this aid they rendered but too well for their late and unhappy brother outlaws.

The plan of operations having been previously determined on, the boats of the squadron were speedily manned, and towed by the ships themselves as near to the land as was consistent with their safety, the boats, piloted by the informer, passed through the reefs, landed, and took possession of the fort held by their coadjutors.

Manning the guns with a party of sturdy seamen, commanded by a lieutenant, the rest of the invaders, officered by three captains, and a proportionate number of juniors, and amounting in number to nearly three hundred men, were led round by the traitors to that side of the mutineers' citadel which was furthest from the sea.

Proceeding in their escalade with all possible silence, they had nearly reached the public square before their approach was known. When at length the alarm was given, so securely had the mutineers been plunged in sleep, that, disbelieving in the possibility of any such surprise, they rushed unheedingly into the open parade, unarmed, even unclothed, and were cut down in scores like beasts at the shambles, while the first musket fired from the height which witnessed their sudden slaughter, was a signal to the squadron at sea to open a heavy fire.

It is true that, from the great distance, this last did little or no damage, but in the dim haze of returning day its exact execution was not to be ascertained, while its powers were increased in terrifying and confusing the assailed, and magnifying the strength of their enemies.

Yet, under all these heavy disadvantages, the pirates, in their terrific efforts to retrieve their fortune, extorted admiration even from their slayers. Defenceless as they started from their beds, they boldly dashed on the bayonets or cutlasses of their assailants, and endeavoured to wring from the hands of their adversaries the weapons with which they were attacked, or, in the strong convulsive strength of despair, grappled them in their brawny arms, and tried to stifle the foes by whom they had been undone, or using the arms which nature gave them, fixed their dying teeth in the throats of the loyalists.

But it was all in vain. Though none sought to flee, yet all who were unable to obtain arms were speedily hacked and hewed in pieces; while the more fortunate few who had possessed themselves of the means of defence were gradually driven up a steep and almost inaccessible rising of the ruck, that abutted upon one side of the grand square,

and terminated in a large winding cave, used, since the first landing of the mutineers, as a grand magazine for stores of all descriptions.

This cavern, from the narrow and tortuous nature of its walls, might easily have been defended by a small number from any force without. The king's troops, therefore, were not allowed to press on into needless destruction. But the Judas of the night was at hand to explain and advise, and having informed them that the cavern had no other outlet, orders were given to draw up two hundred of the sailors and marines in a semicircle before its mouth. This being done, four or five of the wooden houses of the mutineers were hastily pulled down on the square below, the materials brought up, piled in a large heap, and fired. Placed directly before the entrance in such a position that the wind blew the whole of the wood-smoke into the dreary recesses of the cavern, the stifling and excruciating vapour induced the unhappy seamen to rush out in parties of three or four, in proportion to their powers of endurance; preferring the speedy decision that awaited the act outside, to perishing like a nest of wasps within.

As the vast and roaring pile of flame shot up the cliff, and was at moments driven by the blast with over-arching and forky points into the dark hollow of the cave, through the high vault of which incessantly rolled black dense volumes of the most suffocating fumes, a group of human figures would be seen every few seconds to rush out in bright relief, amid the glare that shamed back the advancing sun.

Quick and deadly rattled forth the ringing volleys of musketry aimed at their unprotected persons. Many fell dead or mortally wounded; one or two, less fortunate, and so slightly maimed as still to possess the power of motion, sprang forward a few steps. Again and again volley after volley sent its sharp, clear echoes on the elastic air, and the poor wretch, tottering and striving to the last, fell, still alive, upon the embers of the unpitying fire, whose destructive breath was renewed with fresh material, until the cavern had long since ceased to send forth its despairing refugees, and those who lay mangled on the ground very nearly numbered the exact amount of the transgressors.

Still this truly funereal pyre sent forth its towering radiance, undimmed even by the early glimmering of day, that began to send up its pale heralds in the east.

The squadron had long ceased firing, and the loyalists,

seeing that the victory was theirs, had a moment's time to turn their eyes upon the sea!

-What vast, dim, misty spread of sail was that rapidly bearing down upon the island with an unsubstantial grandeur? The hearts of the seamen grew chill within them; but to the officers afloat and ashore it was the realisation of a thrice-hackneyed tale.

Instead of that irresistible panic which Mynheer had always hitherto been accustomed to produce by the unreal and mysterious appearance of his ship, he beheld, with the utmost surprise, the weathermost frigates of the British squadron put about their heads, and, crowding all sail, advance to meet him.

The pyramid of fire and flame blazing away from that beacon height which he had always hitherto been most careful to render as little noticeable from the sea as possible -the crowds of armed soldiers glittering in scarlet and steel, on which an ominous radiance was thrown-all combined to tell him, with a rapidity less like judgment than revelation, that his fears were but too prophetic-that all was indeed over.

The particulars of the plot, the means of the traitors, he knew not--perhaps he never now should know; he perceived at a glance that his secret was too well knownthat no supernatural terrors remained to wrap in horror the ridicule of deceit, or unnerve the strength that he was powerless otherwise to resist that Dutchman's Isle was already irrecoverably lost, and that to proceed further in any attempt to rescue it, would but be to involve himself and those with him in unavoidable destruction.

Giving a heavy sigh to the memory of those who were still dear to him, he showed no further weakness, made no hesitation; but putting up his helm, and rapidly setting his actual sails, he bore away from the spot on which he had left everything that he could still love on earth, followed, in all the rage of disappointment, and all the wrath of hot pursuit, by two frigates and a seventy-four.

VOL. II.-O